Brett Burney of Nextpoint and I have started a new video series that should be fun called Key eDiscovery Points! Here’s the first episode!

Our first episode is about the big redaction flub that affected Tiktok a few weeks ago, which was covered by Nextpoint here, which alerted me to it and then I covered it here. Essentially, TikTok’s confidential internal communications were revealed during a lawsuit brought by 14 state attorneys general over child safety concerns. Kentucky, one of the states leading the investigation, had blacked out privileged information in court filings. No issues, right?

The problem is that the redacted material could still be accessed by simply copying and pasting the blacked-out sections. Kentucky Public Radio discovered this flaw, exposing information on “some 30 pages of documents” that were never intended to see the light of day.

What did those redactions disclose? TikTok officials admitted internally that their safety features, such as time-limit reminders, weren’t truly designed to reduce screen time. Instead, their main goal was to improve public trust. One internal document detailed how the app was designed to hook users – showing that just 260 videos, which could be viewed in about 35 minutes, were enough to form a habit.

Additionally, these communications highlighted the company’s deliberate efforts to promote “attractive” users and demote others, creating a carefully curated feed that prioritized beauty standards.

Anybody who is a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm may recognize this episode, which was mentioned in the video and relates quite well to what Tiktok was accused of doing.

Regardless, Brent and I discuss the issue and our first of (hopefully) many key eDiscovery points involves what to do to avoid your own big redaction flub like the one that affected Tiktok (which wasn’t even their fault!).

Here’s the less than 9 minute inaugural episode of our series Key eDiscovery Points! Look for our “next point” in about a week or so! (see what I did there?) 🤣

Want to hear more from Brett and me? Tune in today for the EDRM/Nextpoint webinar eDiscovery Trends & Predictions: 2024 in Review and What to Expect in 2025 at 1pm ET (noon CT, 10am PT). Register here!

So, what do you think? How do you avoid eDiscovery mistakes like TikTok’s big redaction flub? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image created using GPT-4o’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot putting a key into a door lock of a locked door”. I think DALL-E missed the “key” to a good image here! 😀

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